The bill comes amid an encryption debate that pits national security against cybersecurity.

State and local governments would be barred from passing and implementing laws that undermine encryption under a federal bill introduced by a bipartisan quartet of House lawmakers Thursday.

The bill, sponsored by Rep. Ted Lieu, D-Calif., among others, would effectively supersede any state or local law that required manufacturers to build surveillance tools into their products or to ensure customer communications or other activities could be decrypted.

Lieu introduced an earlier version of the bill in 2016, which never reached a committee vote. That bill came soon after the FBI tried to compel Apple to help it crack into an encrypted iPhone used by San Bernardino shooter Syed Farook.

An inspector general’s report later found the FBI did not pursue less extreme paths before taking Apple to court. That drew the ire of many cybersecurity- and privacy-focused lawmakers.

The FBI has argued since 2014 that end-to-end encryption systems, which shield customer communications from everyone except the sender and recipient, damage national security and allow terrorists and criminals to “go dark” online.

Cybersecurity and privacy advocates argue that any effort to allow law enforcement special access to encrypted communication could be exploited by criminal hackers, making consumers less secure.